1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrying handle for a shopping bag, in which the handle is a continuously curvilinear combination of arcs having different radii of curvative yet integrally joined together.
2. The Prior Art
Retail businesses sometimes provide plastic shopping bags for their customers, in which bags are placed some, or all, of the various products purchased by the customer. In a supermarket, the customer may purchase several products in cans which when placed in one plastic shopping bag result in a total weight that is relatively quite heavy, possibly up to 10 or 15 pounds. The plastic bag is constructed with two built-in handles that are grasped by the purchaser when he or she leaves the check-out counter to exit the store. Many times each of the handles on the bags becomes crimped together, and each handle becomes quite narrowed in width. The net result is that the weight per unit area supported by each handle is increased by a large factor, such as by 5 to 10 times the original value.
This greatly increased carrying load has been known to cause injury to the fingers and hand of the purchaser, especially if the customer has physical infirmities, such as arthritis, or any other type of joint disease.
In the prior art patents, attempts have been made in the past to overcome these difficulties. The Schulte U.S. Pat. No. 2,684,797 discloses a package or shopping bag handle that consists of a body portion, generally of arcuate shape, onto which are formed at each end hooks, shaped in the form of hammer claws. These ends, or hammer claws, are directed opposite to each other enlarging the size of the handle and serve to hold the cords of a shopping bag. These hammer claws are not directed inwardly to each other. The Schneider U.S. Pat. No. 1,300,030 shows a bow shaped handle onto which is connected a wire hook at each end in order to clasp a package. The Pusey U.S. Pat. No. 609,946 shows a bow shaped handle having cut outs formed at its ends for clasping the string of a package. The Bridwell U.S. Pat. No. 399,180 shows a bow shaped handle having transfer slots at each end to grip the string of a package. The Ottignon U.S. Pat. No. 606,936 shows a bow shaped handle that has an S-curved slot formed in each end. The Castro U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,203 shows a bag carrier consisting of a tubular handle onto which cup hooks are attached to each end. In this patent flexible straps are also provided overlapping the cup hooks in order to restrain the handles of the plastic bag from slipping loose. The Balderree U.S. Pat. No. 2,981,990, shows a bag closure seal. Norway Pat. No. 84,143 shows, a curved metal wire having a wavy midportion with sharply pointed hooks at each end. The Linn U.S. Pat. No. 787,520 shows a curved metal wire having pointed hooks at each end for carrying packages. The Gummelt U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,876, shows a battery carrying handle which is curved with wide end portions and with ribbing in the middle portion which would be gripped by the hand of the carrier. Swiss Pat. No. 224,527, shows a carrying handle which is flat in the middle and has a hook at each end for attaching to a net. Swedish Pat. No. 153,190, shows a carrying handle which has open end portions for carrying a package. The Lane U.S. Pat. No. 891,710, shows a package carrying handle which has a middle portion and an end portion with an outwardly curving hook at each end. The Maccaferri U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,833, shows a handle for being attached to sewn valve bags in which the handle comprises several teeth that dig into the upper portion of the bag. The Williamson U.S. Pat. No. 2,540,068, shows a wire handle for bottle carriers in which there is a central carrying portion connected to two vertically extending prongs. The Schulte U.S. Pat. No. 2,684,797, shows a bow shaped handle having cut outs and prongs formed at its ends for clasping the string of a package. The Parry U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,059, discloses a rectangular shaped carrying handle having a locking loop to close the hooks at the ends of the handle.
Each of these prior art carrying handles has the disadvantage that the string or cord strap carrying means of a shopping bag could readily slip off from the carrying handle, such as whenever the shopping bag is placed on a surface, such as the ground, and the customer releases his grasp of the gripping surface of the carrying handle. Another disadvantage of the prior art is that the construction of the carrying handle, of the prior art, is either very thin or includes sharp pointed corners, so as to greatly increase the likelihood of accident or injury to the hand, or to the clothing of the user that comes in contact with the sharp corners, or the very thin construction of the handle which increases the amount of weight to be carried per unit area.